Shane van Gisbergen's road-course dominance has made headlines once again. The New Zealander won NASCAR's latest Cup Series race at Watkins Glen, besting the field by over 7 seconds to second place, and 16 seconds to third place. The dominance continues to catch the attention of racing legends, including Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick, as noted in their latest podcast episodes.
Debating whether van Gisbergen is NASCAR's best-ever road-course driver is controversial. The sample size is still quite small, given that van Gisbergen is only in his 3rd full-time NASCAR Cup Series season. However, he has been dominant, as evidenced by his incredible 24th-to-1st run in Stage 3, which is available on NASCAR's YouTube channel.
With 11 career road course starts, van Gisbergen has 5 victories, 7 top-5s, and 10 top-10s. When including street courses, he also adds 2 more wins in 3 starts, all at the Chicago Street Race, which has since been moved to San Diego next month on June 21st. Van Gisbergen's combined win percentage on non-left-turn-only tracks is 53.8%.
Denny Hamlin Expects SVG To Tie the Road Course Record
In the latest episode of Hamlin's podcast, Actions Detrimental, he stated that it's "very likely" that van Gisbergen will tie the road-course win record. That mark is currently held by Jeff Gordon, with 9 wins: all at Watkins Glen (5) and Sonoma (4). Remaining on the 2026 season are the San Diego Street Race and Sonoma, which are raced on back-to-back weekends — NASCAR does not have to haul out to California twice, but rather once.
Currently, van Gisbergen has 7 career road course wins: Charlotte Roval (1), Chicago (2), Mexico City (1), Sonoma (1), Watkins Glen (2). These are all of his career wins, never being a victor on a right-turn-only, oval track.
While Hamlin praises van Gisbergen for his dominance, he believes that Connor Zilisch will eventually get to him on such course setups. Zilisch even had the fastest lap run of any driver at Watkins Glen.
"Zilisch was extremely fast… a challenger," Hamlin stated when referencing March's race at Circuit of the Americas. At COTA, "Zilisch just had some unfortunate things happen." While Tyler Reddick won that race, Hamlin acknowledges that he is only "1-A and 1-B" with Zilisch, as the two drivers are the gunners to catch van Gisbergen on road course setups.
Kevin Harvick Praises SVG's 25th-to-1st Comeback
Shane van Gisbergen Opens Up Massive Race Lead. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
"The only way to keep up with SVG is to hire SVG to drive your car, because nobody else can make it go as fast as him," Harvick explained. Harvick is a main commentator on Fox's weekly broadcast of the Cup Series race. He further explained that they (Harvick, Clint Boywer, and Mike Joy) were "wary that he could make it back to the front of the field"; however, "after about 7 or 8 laps, it was pretty clear that it wasn't going to be close."
At the peak of van Gisbergen's Stage 3 25th-to-1st run, he was making up 2.5 seconds per lap. Van Gisbergen had to make up this margin given he pitted much later in the cycle than the rest of the field. Yet, fresh tires prevailed, and when van Gisbergen really had to get going, he crushed it with lap times that were around 3% faster than the field.
Harvick's co-host on SPEED with Harvick and Buxton, Will Buxton, asked a vital question to Harvick: "Is he the greatest road course racer that the Cup Series has ever seen?" The reply was fast and vehement from Harvick: "hands down the best road course racer that the Cup Series has ever seen." He explains how Marcos Ambrose was "probably the second best, but he was in a less-than-competitive car." Van Gisbergen has done it at every road course, and fans ought to respect it.
This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on May 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the Racing section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
